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Attena Academy
Attena Academy is the leading university-level educational institution of the Attena region of Thessia's Tescani continent. A member of the 'Crystal Ten' - an informal grouping of Thessia's most highly-regarded universities - Attena Academy is renowned in particular for the quality of its galactic studies department. Founding The Academy's oldest incarnation, the Thes'Nurla Library, was founded on the Academy's current site in 1327 BCE - the modern institute's formal name is the Thes'Nurla Academy, in recognition of its ancestor, although since the Academy's campus and facilities now cover the entirety of what was the township of Thes'Nurla, its informal name of Attena Academy has become all but official. Thes'Nurla, and the Matriarchs who founded the library (a complete university, despite its unassuming name), are commemorated by a series of statues and monuments throughout the campus, as well as an exensive historical display in the Academy's museum. Galactic Studies Serving the Attena region - where easily navigable waterways provided fast and safe travel between geographically distant areas, even in the pre-industrial era - the library quickly became a nexus of learning as academics from all over Attena, and the greater Tescani continent, settled there or undertook regular visits; the diversity of schools of learning even attracted pupils and scholars from other continents. When global travel and communication was becoming a reality, the library - which around this time reorganised itself as the Academy - became recognised as one of Thessia's greatest centres of social study, combining historical and archaeological archives stretching back to tribal times with a social sciences department boasting some of the most respected Matriarchs then in the field. This tradition has continued to the present, with its scale widened to encompass the entire explored galaxy. The Academy's courses on political science, sociology, asarthropology, history, economics, and law - and their counterparts relating to other species - are regarded as being among Citadel space's finest, attracting scholars from across the galaxy; the Academy also maintains a high intake of offworld students, seeing the social gathering of many species and cultures represented by its student body as a key factor in maintaining its excellence in galactic studies. Attena Academy is consequently the source of a significant number of the Republic's diplomats, both from its own student body and those of other Thessian universities and colleges, with which it has extensive exchange programmes. Campus The Academy's campus, as noted, stretches across the entire area of what was once the township of Thes'Nurla, and is effectively a small city in itself, with integrated residential, commercial, and limited industrial capacity. Following the example of the original library, the Academy's buildings have always sought to include natural features in their designs, and the campus includes large areas of landscaped gardens, parklands, waterways and lakes, and natural forest. In addition to its own internal rapid transit network, the Academy operates regular suborbital shuttle and passenger train services to other schools and institutes in the Attena region, allowing their students access to Academy facilities and courses without imposing impractical travel times. Sport Befitting the reputation of Attena's population for being active, outdoors types, the Academy has a thriving recreational and sporting community. Most prominent among its sporting representatives are the Attena Spearmaidens, one of the mainstay teams of the planetary springball league, and the source of a fierce (but generally friendly) rivalry with Erana University; though Attena's springball teams is currently dominant, the two institutions have had periods when their teams have been famously evenly-matched. The Academy also has a strong pildavi following, and is a formidable competitor in the Thessian planetary competition. Although it has no team in the Republics-wide Asari Pildavi Union championship, it has become common over the centuries for promising Attena players to be taken up by Serrice University's Thessia Thunder APU team. Reaper War With its massive communications infrastructure and concentration of scholars, the Academy became a target during the initial Reaper bombardment of Thessia, which aimed to both decapitate the asari population by killing its Matriarchs and forestall any possibility of recovery by destroying the planetary communications network necessary for government. Although the Academy suffered significant damage, and loss of life among both its teachers and students, its widely dispersed construction prevented worse casualties by denying concentrated targets. Following the Reaper withdrawal, the surviving areas of the campus, and the inhabitants who returned to them, found themselves the de facto leaders of the Attena region - as communication was slowly reestablished with outlying areas, it became apparent that the remaining Matriarchs of the Academy, and the militias that had defended it, were the most centralised of those that remained in Attena. The Academy became a temporary governing body, overseeing coordination and allocation of resources among the region's surviving communities, until high-capacity communications were reestablished and proper local self-government could resume. Teaching at the Academy has resumed, and reconstruction of damaged and destroyed areas of the campus is underway. Out-of-character notes *The page image is modified from a design concept for the Songjiang Shimao Hotel. Category:Organizations and Businesses Category:Asari Republics